The Challenges of Ensuring Equality

By Tristan Wagner and Kelson Marisa * Affirmative Action involves equal opportunity in getting a job at a company for minorities. The government wants to make up for the discrimination there once was in the U.S. against women, religion, age, and race. The opposite of Affirmative Action is Reverse Discrimination, which is hiring a certain minority group only. * The government enforces Affirmative Action, so therefore they agree with it. The government wants all sort of different women and minority races in companies to incorporate equality in employment in America. They do not want companies to not hire people due to their race, gender, religion, or age. The government still allows small private companies to hire freely. * 1965 – Pres. Lyndon Johnson issued an executive order (11246) that required federal contractors to take affirmative action when hiring employees without regard to race, religion and national origin. 3 years later in 1968, gender was added. 1970 – Federal District Court and Alabama found that in the 37 years of state patrol, there was never a black state trooper. They ordered provisions that required strict control over the civil service certification procedure and a program that recruited minority job applicants. After 18 months of no blacks being hired for any position connected to the troopers, they gave another order that required at least 1 qualified black trooper to be hired for every white hired, until 25% of the force was made up of blacks.

By Kelson Marisa and Tristan Wagner * Fisher v. University of Texas – Abigail Fisher claimed that she was denied admission to the University of Texas because she is white. The value of diversity in higher education and the court’s role in deciding how much weight admissions officers should correlate to race was debated. * Affirmative Action is a good idea because as an American citizen I don't want America to be labeled as a racist country. Everyone deserves the right to have a job no matter what the race, gender, age, or religion. Abigail Fisher

Discrimination Against Women Issue: Women all over the world are deprived of some of their human rights because of their gender Government Stance The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Made up of 23 experts on women's issues from all around the world Milena Minarcin & Erin Killen

Reed vs. Reed Sally and Cecil were fighting over who should be named the administer of their sons estate. The Idaho probate court specified that males must be preferred to females, making Cecil the administrator. When Sally and Cecil both appealed, the case was considered by the Supreme Court. Their unanimous decision stated that the preference in favor of males was unconstitutional. For the first time in history the Supreme Court ruled that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment applied to gender as well. Milena Minarcin & Erin Killen

Continued... Current Debate Military Draft Womens pay- in 1979-1997 women earned 59.7% of men's earnings. As the years passed the pay keeps increasing and in 1997 it reached to 74.2% of their earnings. Today, women are only paid 72 cents for every dollar a man earns. Military Draft Women were most likely to become nurses They are becoming more and more involved in combat Women were only allowed to be drafted if they met all requirements Our Opinion- Women and men shouldn't be treated differently just because of gender. They are humans too and deserve equal treatment. Milena Minarcin & Erin Killen

Citizens Rights to Know By Cam and Makenzie The government does fight citizens right to know, so they do support it. But they do believe that some documents and records cannot be given out to the public due to it being sensitive or classified information that the government cannot release. 1976 - Many government meetings and hearings were held in secret and the public did not like that. So that is where the Sunshine Act would come into place. I believe that the citizens right to know is a good thing because the government should tell us what is going on because they are the ones who represent us.

Government decisions and actions By Cam and Makenzie The Citizens rights to know is a very touchy subject because the citizens would like to know what their government is doing, but some things just cannot be released by the government. Freedom of Information Act - This act allows for the full or partial of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the government. The Sunshine Act - This acts affects the government, congress, federal commissions, and other constituted federal bodies. So an example would be if there is a meeting of government officials, the public would have to be notified before the meeting takes place. California Public Records Act - spells out the legal right to obtaining government records.

Citizens Right to Privacy Citizens have the right to privacy, and unreasonable searches, and seizures limit this Adam Jaworski and Jake Reardon

Government Stance on the Issue The government wants to lock down on terrorist groups by wire tapping, and hidden cameras This increases security, but may violate peoples' right to privacy Adam Jaworski and Jake Reardon

Past Issues on the Topic Adam Jaworski and Jake Reardon Past Issues on the Topic The Patriot act- it was made to detect and stop terrorist acts in the U.S, and improve investigation tools for law enforcement. Griswold v. Connecticut- Estelle Griswold was a doctor who encouraged people to use birth control which violated the peoples marital rights to privacy. The case was appealed to a higher court because Griswold said that the law was unconstitutional. He was found innocent because the law was indeed Unconstitutional

Current Issues on Topic The most current debate is searching for possible terrorist groups by wire tapping and using hidden cameras under the patriot act Adam Jaworski and Jake Reardon

Opinion We agree that federal forces should be cracking down on terrorist groups and acts on the United States. We also believe that there has to be a reasonable cause to search and seize important things. Adam Jaworski and Jake Reardon